


I Hear Words In Your Silence

by littleballofhell



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: F/M, Hange is a mess and Levi helps her cope with it, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Nudity, there is nudity but I dont focus on it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-14
Updated: 2016-02-14
Packaged: 2018-05-20 11:40:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,140
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6004614
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/littleballofhell/pseuds/littleballofhell
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It’s worse when she gets quiet.</p>
            </blockquote>





	I Hear Words In Your Silence

**Author's Note:**

> This was written months ago and would probably have been forgotten in the depths of the labyrinth that is my laptop if not for my good ol' friend Julia, so I dedicate this to her.

It’s worse when she gets quiet.

Levi might claim to find it annoying how Squad Leader Hange Zoe won’t shut her crap. Hell, he might not even claim it, but simply chose to stay as stoic as possible whenever she went on her rants. But you see, he doesn’t do it to be a dick and he surely doesn’t do it for not caring. It’s just the way he is and she’s fine with it. He might never say it, but if she enjoys talking about the forsaken titans so much, he’ll listen. He most likely won’t have anything to say back but that’s fine, Hange can do the talking, that’s what she likes best.

Now imagine his worry when he finds her mute. She’s quiet when she’s sad, he’s come to understand (it didn’t take him too long, mind you). Hange is the one who does the talking, he’s got the smoothness of a fucking abnormal when it comes to showing shit by words. So Levi simply opts to do what he does best.

He’s a man of simple needs, you see. Never been one to talk, never been one to bond. He’ll keep the whole damn base clean if he can and there’s not a single person within and outside the walls that could keep him away from his beloved black tea.

When he finds her after one of those expeditions, he takes her by her cloak. Levi doesn’t mind the confused looks on the faces of the new recruits and he doesn’t mind the understanding ones on the faces of the veterans. What he minds, though, is the dead look on the Squad Leader’s one and that he won’t have. So he takes her to his personal wash room and sits her down on the tub. He takes away her cloak and jacket and slowly works on the harness. She’s quiet the whole time as is he. 

As the belts hit the floor, Levi leaves her to fill the bathtub with warm water. Hange doesn’t move and he eventually turns back to her to take the rest of her clothes off. He unbinds her hair and helps her into the tub. He’s filthy himself and chooses to join her, taking his place behind her and starting to scrub the dirt out of her back. He does it on her arms and legs and hair. He does it on her belly and breasts and face. Levi leaves her most private places to herself and Hange finishes what he started.

She’s quiet the entire time he washes himself, but as he leaves the soap on the counter and as the water begins to go cold, he hears a sob. It’s quiet and if it wasn’t for their proximity he might not have been able to hear it. But there’s no mistaking it, he soon realizes as her body begins to tremble softly. Now, he might not know the right words to say and he might not even know if he’s supposed to say something, but the Corporal knows what to do, so he envelops her in his arms and he kisses her neck and he holds her still. 

That’s the first he hears of her all night and it worries him to his bones, so he kisses her neck again, and then her face, and then she’s turning her body to rightfully fit his embrace and her head is on his shoulder and he’s hugging her so tight it might take her breath away.

He holds her and she cries and he kisses her forehead. It stays like this for a while until her body stops trembling, until she’s got her eyes closed and her arms around him, giving him a quick squeeze to let him know she’s better now. 

Levi leaves the bathtub and quickly dries himself, tying the towel around his waist and going back to help Hange out. He gently dries her and guides her to his room, to his bed, where she sits. He’s done this a couple of times before and as much as he likes her to know he’s there for her as much as she is for him, he always wishes it to be the last time, for it’s never an easy task to see her so broken, so damaged like him. It’s a selfish thought, he knows, to wish for her to endure, when so many others shatter, including him. 

In times like this he craves for a different reality, one in which Hange wouldn’t have to mourn the death of so many. One in which she wouldn’t have to break for reasons such as losses every now and again. He wishes that for himself, too, but that always fulfills in making him sad. Hange’s said something like that once and he half hopes she’s right, that one day they’ll be reborn in a different world, in a less cruel and horrible one. And he half hopes not to believe her, simply because it’d hurt to be wrong and hurt is something he won’t take no more.

He takes her towel and uses it to dry her hair, eventually leaving the bed to get her one of his night shirts and coming back to put it on her. Levi helps her under the blankets and makes sure she’s warm enough before going to put some clothes on himself. He puts some pants on and goes back to find her looking at him. Hange offers him her hand and he takes it, climbing on bed with her and enveloping her once more.

“Thank you.” Is all she says, her words muffed by the skin of his chest. She writes words with her fingertips on his body but he doesn’t mind to read them.

“Hm.” He answers “You smelled like shit.”

Hange laughs and it’s so good to hear the sound of it his heart might burst. She eventually stops her patterns on his chest, as sleep finds her. Levi still holds her, though, and he thinks he might not be able to sleep for a while. Nothing new there, honestly.

So he looks at her, at her dark eyelids, at her long beautiful nose, at her slightly opened mouth. He thinks he may kiss it, later on, but for now it was better to let her rest. She deserved it.

Levi takes a deep breath and looks at the opened window on the other side of the room. He could hear talking on the first floor and thought it was probably just the recruits, celebrating the lives they still held.

For once, he stops fantasizing new worlds and he focuses on the coming and going of her breathing. This one may be hard and cruel and sad, but in this world he has her and Levi wouldn’t have it any other way.


End file.
